Group backing Rocky opposed the auto bailout

One of the groups spending heavily to support Rocky Raczkowski in his 9th Congressional District matchup with Rep. Gary Peters also was an ardent foe of the auto bailout that saved General Motors Co. and Chrysler LLC, as well as thousands of jobs across Oakland County.

The website Americans For Taxpayer Reform, one of several groups that have to come to Raczkowski's assistance, also contains articles actively supporting the Japanese automaker Toyota.

"It was not too long ago that the halls of the Capitol were reverberating with diatribes against Toyota and campaigns against their supposed malfeasance to consumers were being mounted right and left," the website said.

"Indeed, Congress leaped at the chance to crucify (Toyota), though nothing suggested there was anything unique about the Toyota recall. In fact, Honda had announced a recall of almost the same size the month prior to Toyota's first Congressional hearing, but was not met with any bureaucratic hostility," material on the ATR website said.

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"This, as we discussed in the spring, was due to the government's stake in seeing Toyota fail. The most profitable car company in America, Toyota consistently outperformed government-owned GM by a four-to-one ratio. The government saw the Toyota recall as a golden opportunity to bring down its main competitor," ATR said on its site.

In addition, ATR came out against any kind of aid for Detroit's automaker in November 2008, when President George W. Bush approved loans from the U.S. Treasury that helped GM meet its payroll and kept Chrysler solvent during a critical period running from December 2008 through January 2009.

Grover Norquist, ATR's leader, also actively campaigned against the bailout last year. Norquist advocated letting both GM and Chrysler go bankrupt and allowing the bankruptcy judge to restructure the companies. ATR did not respond to requests for comment.

However, in a non-partisan report prepared in November 2008, the Center For Automotive Research estimated 3 million jobs would have been lost had GM and Chrysler collapsed. Southeast Michigan would have been particularly hard hit.

Meanwhile, Toyota recalls over the past year have now surpassed 10 million units, far more than those cited by ATR and far more than any other automaker has recalled this year.

Don Esmond, Toyota Motor Sales senior vice president, said earlier this month that the Japanese automaker has been forced by the recalls to address its own internal problems.

"We've gone back to the basics of more carefully listening to our customers and have made some significant changes to become a more responsive, safety-focused organization," Esmond said during a recent visit to Detroit.

Raczkowski said in an interview with The Oakland Press that he was not familiar with ATR's opposition to the automotive bailout.

"I don't agree with anything that would hurt our automakers," Raczkowski said. "I have no connection with these people. All I know is I signed a pledge not to raise taxes."

He noted that several outside groups have spent money on ads attacking him in his campaign against Peters.

"I've always driven Ford and General Motors cars," he said.

"You have to look at the individual candidates," said Raczkowski, noting retirees hurt during the bailout of GM and Chrysler have reached out to him.

The bankruptcy procedure put in place by the Obama administration and supported by Peters also favored the interest of unions over bondholders, including pension funds, which were placed at a disadvantage.

"I strongly believe we have to help our auto industry and manufacturing," Raczkowski said. "We also have to support fair trade," he said.

Raczkowski said he definitely would have supported aid for Detroit's automakers if he had been in Congress in early 2009. Personally, he said he would have preferred to see the government provide loan guarantees rather make a direct investment in GM and Chrysler.

Several other local Republicans, such as Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, Rep. Mike Rogers and Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, also actively supported the bailout in 2008 and 2009.

Dan Farough, a spokesman for Peter's campaign, said it's obvious that outside groups such as ATR have no understanding of the importance of the bailout to the 9th District, which is the headquarters of Chrysler and has the highest concentration of automotive engineers in the country.

"It has a terrible record when it comes to American jobs," Farough said, nothing ATR's backers have been major supporters of outsourcing.

Meanwhile, Peters' campaign staff estimates that ATR is on course to spend nearly $1 million on television adds attacking the congressman, who has been a leading advocate for federal assistance to GM and Chrysler.

"They don't care about what goes on in this district. They just have a very narrow ideological agenda," Farough said.

"On three different occasions in 2010, Americans for Tax Reform has specifically stated that it is a violation of the pledge to vote for legislation to end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Gary Peters' opponent has signed the ATR pledge," Farough said.